DO ELECTIONS SAVE CONSEQUENCES? | March 2024

DO ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES? | March 2024

As spring looms, so will the primary election that sets the stage for the 2024 election this fall (our primaries are April 23). Every cliché continues to be thrown at this election cycle: everything is at stake this year, elections have consequences, people will vote with their feet, and incredibly, all of them are true.

The “why” for the stakes this year moves beyond the political division we see around us and the number of unresolved issues we see in daily headlines. We are on an endless merry-go-round of who stays in office (over ten special elections for both state legislative chambers last year). That also maintains a question of who has a majority in the House, albeit a very slim majority of 1 Republican to Democrat every time. Even though some want that job, there is an equally embarrassing game of “not it” to decide Speakers of the House in D.C. Not to mention the most widely discussed presidential election and all that comes with it.

So yes, this year’s elections will affect our state and national politics. What to do about it is not anything but shocking. Republicans and Democrats should both be able to embrace merit shops as not only job creating but also celebrating choice. For democrats, the philosophy is a choice of what to do with one’s life for one’s career. Both parties can support fairness and level playing fields for anyone. That doesn’t even bring up the fact that our members are made up of an overwhelming majority of the construction industry that chooses not to join a union and wants state/federal rules that don’t penalize that decision. Anyone who wants to join a union is welcome to, but that shouldn’t create a different set of rules for how the business is done.

Our responsibility is to learn about each candidate and meet them going into the primaries to educate them about our issues and our values. There should be no excuse for any candidate not to know where we stand. ABC Keystone will soon release information on those incumbents who have supported the merit shop through their leadership in the legislature this past year. Please stay tuned for that information and use it to help decide who to vote for and what key votes to thank them for or ask why they didn’t support ABC.